Patients transferred after water main break knocks out heat at Green Bay hospital

GREEN BAY (AP) — A Green Bay hospital has reopened after a water main break shut down the heat and forced the transfer of about 50 patients.

Press-Gazette Media (http://gbpg.net/1xUXSM3) reports St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center reopened Sunday, January 11th -- a day after the break caused flooding in the basement and shut down the boiler.

Dr. Ken Johnson, the hospital's chief physician executive, says the hospital used 12 ambulances to transfer patients to St. Vincent Hospital. Johnson says patients included new mothers and newborns to people recovering from surgery.

"The decision was really made to look at the amount of time the heat would remain within in the building. That two-hour time frame was what was determined because of the temperature conditions," Theresa Pandle, President & CEO of the Eastern Wisconsin Division Hospital Sisters Health System said.

Johnson says patients were never in danger, and the transfers were done in an orderly manner.

St. Mary's Chief Operating Officer Larry Connors says the cause of the main break hasn't been determined.



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